Leviticus 7:11-27 – The cross means… Fellowship with God

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Amen. I've got a confession to make. I've got an electronic engineering degree, and yet when I get into my electric car, I actually have very little understanding of how it works other than the basics. It's so complicated and so complex that I just get in and it works. And I like that.

It takes me to where I want to go. And that's great. And that's what so often we do with the cross. The cross of Jesus works. And so the danger is that we never open up the bonnet and look at what Jesus was actually doing that first Easter weekend.

And that, my friends, is what Leviticus is going to do for us as we travel through Lent. You will not find greater detail as to what is happening on that first Easter, that first Good Friday, that first Easter Sunday morning. You won't find more detail than you find actually here in Leviticus. Leviticus is like a book that says, hey, do you want the full fat version? What goes on?

And often people slightly back away from Leviticus. It's kind of gory, it's kind of detailed and repetitive. It's kind of a bit bloodthirsty. My friends, I want to argue that it's actually because Leviticus shows us the cross that often we want to back away from it. And I want to invite you, during this season of Lent, let's see, let's look upon what Christ has done.

And I honestly believe it will thrill our hearts. Leviticus is set. It's about, how is God going to dwell with his people. Remember we were in Exodus and we saw there was that tabernacle, that tent, the place where God was going to meet with his people. And of course there is a huge problem with that.

Take for example today. It's been a lovely sunny day, right? And we've had the sun out. It's been glorious. And the whole world relies on the fact that the sun is there in order to give plants life and in order to give us warmth.

And there would be no life on earth, scientifically speaking, if there weren't for the sun. But do you know, if the sun was only a few miles closer to us than it is, there'd also be no life on earth because we would be burned up.

If that's true of a medium sized star, how is it that the one who breathes out stars, the one who is perfect in his holiness, could possibly be close to somebody like me or like you, who lets others down? He forgets that he's there. He treats his holiness as something that is a minor inconvenience. At times.

How on earth is that going to happen? Well, Leviticus starts at chapter one flick there, it's back a couple of pages, you'll see that there are the headings. They're not put in by the Bible. We don't read them when we're reading out loud, but it's there, it says the burnt offering. Because the very first thing that people are confronted with is the need to get rid of the problem of sin.

And they do that by bringing a bull. In fact, we're told very, very specifically Little number three of chapter one, the offering. If the offering is a burnt offering from the herd, you are to offer a male without defect. You see, the Israelite is to come bringing a perfect male, ideally bull. Now that would be quite expensive.

Chris Pocock's not here for me to get the going rate, but I think if I was to head down to Bakewell and was to buy a bull today, I think it would cost me around three to four thousand pounds. I haven't done it. We're not doing this live, don't worry. But, but were you to bring a bull, it would be an expensive thing and in a culture like theirs, even more so. This is an expensive thing that is bought and it is bought before the Lord.

And Little number four, verse four, you're to lay your hands on the head of the burnt offering, literally to press down, to get up close and personal with this bull where you can see every flake of its spotless snout. I don't know what bulls have, but the point is you're getting close to this bull, you're identifying with this bull.

And then verse five, you're to slaughter the bull before the Lord to take out a knife. And this isn't the priest doing it, this is you doing it. You're to take that 3,4000 pound bull and to kill it. And then you watch as that bull in its entirety, this is a holocaust offering. The bull in its entirety is placed on the altar and consumed in the fire there as it becomes ash.

Why? Well, because my sin coming before a holy, righteous, pure God would reduce me to less than ash. How can such impurity, such brokenness, come before a holy God?

Imagine for a moment saying to an Israelite, God doesn't really care about sin. It's just one of those slightly awkward words.

The Israelite would look back at you and say, I am covered in £4,000 worth of blood.

My prized bull is there burning on the altar in my place. Really, God doesn't care about sin. Of course he cares. This is a very graphic, horrendous picture of what it is for a sinner to come before God. But please, I've told you, this is all about the cross, isn't it?

Why is it that they're told that this should be a spotless male bull? Because Jesus is a spotless male. Why is it such an expensive thing, so much so that actually you have to sub in other animals for people who can't afford it? Well, because Jesus is a precious sacrifice. You see each of these sacrifices that will flick through in the start of Leviticus.

They show us another angle of what's going on. And here we see that there is one who was consumed entirely in the wrath of God in my place and in yours, one who identified with me and who therefore would take my death before God. I should be reduced to the ash that I'm going to put on our foreheads in a few minutes time. And yet Jesus has identified with us. And in fact, it goes on.

So we go from the burnt offering, we're into chapter two, where we find a grain offering, as if to say, let's just point forward, and I'm doing this really quickly. I'd love to spend longer on this. Let's just point forward to what this offering is going to look like. We find that somebody can bring from time to time the first fruits, verse 12 of chapter 2. You may bring them to the Lord as an offering of the first fruits.

Again, we know of the first fruits, don't we? What's Christ called, first fruits of our salvation? The first fruits from among the dead. What's more, we're told this is a grain offering, translated that way because. Well, because it probably was grain.

But the word grain is also the word seed. Now, why is that important? Well, because throughout the Old Testament of the Bible, there's all sorts of promises about seed, isn't there? Do you remember back as Adam and Eve fall in the garden and God promises Eve the seed of the woman will crush the serpent's head. The promise to Abraham.

This is a promise to you and your seed. There is going to be a seed. There is going to be one who is coming, who is going to be consumed on this altar. What's more, as we look at the grain offering, we see. We see there's a heck of a lot of oil in the grain offerings, right?

Verse one, they are to pour olive oil on it. Verse two, the priest shall take a handful of the flour and oil. Verse 4, either thick loaves made without yeast and with olive oil mixed in verse five, it's made with the finest flour mixed with oil. Verse seven, it's been made of the finest flour and some oil. I could go on.

But we see in the Scriptures, oils often used to speak of the Holy Spirit of God. That's why kings were anointed with oil.

So we're looking for a Holy Spirit, anointed seed of the woman who will be sacrificed. Oh, and incidentally, the kings who are anointed with oil. There's a name for that anointed one, Mashiach. Messiah.

You see, this is pointing forwards. We're going to skip chapter three for a moment. We'll come back to it, don't worry. But chapter four, we see what else is going on at the cross of Jesus. It's not just the Anointed One who is dying in our place.

It's the Anointed One who is a sin offering. These sin offerings were brought when Israelites would sin unintentionally, just by living in this world and having hearts like ours. There are times when we sin unintentionally, aren't they? And what's interesting about the sin offering, and I'm flying through this really quickly, is the kind of language that is used. Just look with me at chapter four, verse six.

He's to dip his finger into the blood and sprinkle it seven times before the Lord. The priest shall then put some of the blood on the horns of the altar and the fragrant incense before the Lord and the tent of Meeting. The rest of the bull's blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar. See, there's lots of talk of pouring and sprinkling.

It's as if saying, look, as we come to the sin offering. What is happening is a cleansing, a washing. Israelites. You need an offering that is going to be completely consumed in the fire of the altar. You need an offering that is an anointed seed.

You need an offering that is going to wash you clean. What Jesus is doing at the cross is washing you clean by his blood. That's why the New Testament uses that very language. That means that if you are here and you have a past, as we all do, you have things that haunt you. You need to hear the cross of Christ has washed you clean.

You're clean before him, no matter what you've done or what has been done to you. But there's another one. There's the guilt offering. The guilt offering in chapter five speaks of when somebody has caused a penalty, basically to somebody Else a cost to somebody else. And we're told that there's a restitution.

So verse 16. They must make restitution in regard to what they have failed to do, in regard to the holy things. They're to pay back, to make it right with others, but they're also to bring a sacrifice which will redeem, which will buy them back. And again, we thought just a few weeks ago, didn't we, about Hosea. Hosea, whose wife is a picture of me and you, sold herself into slavery to sin.

And what did Hosea do? Went to the slave market and bought her back.

You see the cross of Jesus is God paying to bring us back. We see a substitute who is burnt in our place. We see the anointed one of God, the anointed seed of God who is sacrificed for us. We see one who washes us clean. We see one who deals with our guilt by buying us back.

My friends. Is that the gospel?

Is that the gospel?

Well, yes.

And it's not quite everything, is it? You see, we could believe all of that intellectually. Yeah. I can tick off those doctrines and still be sitting here with cold, hard hearts, still be sitting here and be thinking, God. You sound, to be honest, a bit bloodthirsty.

You sound a bit distant to me. Jonathan Edwards, the theologian, not the triple jumper. In his Treatise of Grace, he wrote this. This is reflect on this bit of scripture, I'll read it all. When he saw Jesus, he, the devil cried out and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, what have I to do with thee, Jesus?

Thou Son of God most High, I beseech thee, torment me not. And Edwards says, here is external worship. The devil appears very religious. He prays. In fact, he prays in a humble posture.

He falls down before Christ, he lies prostrate, he prays earnestly, he cries out with a loud voice. He uses humble expressions, I beseech thee, torment me not. He uses respectful and honourable expressions. Jesus, thou Son of God most High. Nothing was wanting, says Edwards in the devil's words about Jesus.

Nothing was wanting but love. He didn't love Jesus.

Do you love the God of Leviticus? Does he stir you inside? Do you long for the Jesus of the cross?

And if your answer to that is honestly I'm not sure at the moment, then please let me take you to the fellowship offering. The fellowship offering is not an offering that you need to bring. You don't have to do it. It's not prescribed. It's not like now you've done that.

So You've got to do the fellowship offering. The only time you've got to do it is if you said you'd do it because of a vow. No, it's an expression of thankfulness. Verse 12. They offer it as an expression of thankfulness.

Then along with the thank offering and thick loaves of bread, etc, etc. You see, the fellowship offering was one that is bought just because you love him, just because you like him. And amazingly, the fellowship offering is one that you get to eat with him. You get to eat the meat with the Lord. Why is it that the Lord is doing all of these other offerings?

He's doing it so that people like me and people like you, people who should be ash, can sit at his very table and eat with him.

If King Charles sent you an invite to sit at his table and eat with him, that would be an honour, wouldn't it? My friends, the king of glory who outshines our son, longs to invite you to his table. The offerings of Leviticus. Yes, they condemn us and show us our place before him and our sin. Sorry, convict us.

They don't condemn us, they convict us. They show us our sin in order that we can then come to the table. The fellowship offering is to be eaten by people who are clean, who've done all of the other offerings. It's not just a free for all, it's no, no, you who are right before God, come and eat with me. Enjoy me.

It's one that we shouldn't take lightly. You can't go eating the fat. That's God's bit. No sneaky sniffling of God's stuff. It's not one that we take lightly.

It's one that we take very seriously. But it's a great honour. It's not one that we can just leave. It's amazing. It's like you can eat with God.

You can eat it on the first day if there's a bit left over. Okay, well, I suppose you can eat it on the second day. Don't go eating on the third day. Why? Well, in the same way that if I put dinner out for my kids and they wait until it's cold, it's offensive, right?

You're like, come on, I've cooked this half an hour ago.

Don't treat them this honour of a God who longs to eat with you as something to give or take.

You see, the amazing thing about this God is that he invites you to eat with him, knowing what it will cost. Some of us as we come to Leviticus, think, oh, think of all the animals. This is shocking and it is shocking. But every animal that is sacrificed in Leviticus is a tragedy of our making. It's our own hearts that have turned their back on God.

And what does God do? He says, I will be that sacrifice. I will take the most precious thing, my son, far more precious than the blood of bulls my anointed seed promised from the start. I will sacrifice him. I will look upon people who will reject me and look at the meal I'll put on their table and wait until the third day thinking it's okay, who are blase.

And yet I will be consumed in the fire of my anger at sin so that they can be with me.

That's why I think this service is so poignant. We go from a place of seeing our sin to being invited to the table. We go from a place of being convicted to a place of Jesus telling us, this is my body broken for you. Eat this in remembrance of me.